"Blossom Hosts and Insect Guests 



mountain wilderness, its typical haunt, is an event 

 to date from — its two great, glistening, fluted leaves, 

 sometimes as large as a dinner-plate, spreading flat 

 upon the mould, and surmounted by the slender 



leafless stalk, with its termi- 

 nal loose raceme of greenish- 

 white bloom. 



A single blossom of the 

 species is shown in Fig. i, the 

 parts indexed. The opening 

 to the nectary is seen just be- 

 low the stigmatic surface, the 

 nectary itself being nearly two 

 inches in length. The pollen 

 is in two club-like bodies, each 

 hidden within a fissured pouch 

 on either side of the stigma, 

 and coming to the surface at 

 the base in their opposing 

 sticky disks as shown. Many 

 of the group Habenaria or 

 Platanthera, to which this flower belongs, are sim- 

 ilarly planned. But mark the peculiarly logical as- 

 sociation of the parts here exhibited. The nectary 

 implies a welcome to a tongue two inches long, and 

 will reward none other. This clearly shuts out the 



142 



S, Stigma. 

 L, Lip. 

 P, Pollen- 

 pouch. 

 N, Opening 

 to nectary 

 T, Nectary 



t ube. 

 G, Gland. 



Fig. 



